Russia ready to upgrade level of direct talks with Kiev – Lavrov
Russia is ready to raise the status of its delegation-level peace negotiations with Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has announced. His remarks followed a summit between President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump in Alaska last week.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Lavrov said that the idea was floated by Putin following his phone call with Trump on Monday, which went on as the US president was holding talks with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and several key European leaders in the White House.
It is unclear whether Lavrov’s reference to elevating the delegation status was hinting at the possibility of future Putin-Zelensky talks.
Lavrov added that the new status of delegations would also imply the review of “a separate bloc [of questions] to address the political aspects of conflict resolution, alongside military and humanitarian issues.”
He said that Russia had suggested forming three working groups to discuss this agenda during the latest round of direct talks with Ukraine, but noted that Kiev “so far has not responded.”
Russia and Ukraine have held three rounds of direct talks in Istanbul this year, led on Moscow’s side by presidential advisor Vladimir Medinsky. The negotiations made no breakthroughs on the settlement of the wider conflict, but did lead to prisoner exchanges between the two sides.
Lavrov’s remarks come in the wake of the Putin-Trump Alaska summit, which both leaders described as constructive, although it ended with no deal on Ukraine.
Trump’s meeting with Zelensky and the European leaders several days later ended with the US president saying that Kiev’s membership in NATO is out of question, and insisting on a direct Putin-Zelensky meeting.
Putin has not ruled out a meeting with Zelensky in principle, but said it should be preceded with serious progress in negotiations on the conflict. Moscow has also voiced concern about Zelensky’s authority to sign any binding documents, given that his presidential term expired last year.
